A magnetic memory cell stores information by changing electrical resistance of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) element. The MTJ element typically includes a fixed (pinned) magnetic layer and a free magnetic layer. The fixed (pinned) magnetic layer and the free magnetic layer are laminated such that a tunnel barrier film is formed between the two layers. The magnetic orientation of the free layer flips by a direction or an opposite direction of electric currents exceeding a critical select current. The electrical resistance of the MTJ element changes corresponding to that of the magnetic orientation of the free layer relating to the fixed magnetic layer, which may be in either a parallel (P) state or an anti-parallel (AP) state.
However, conventional magnetic memory cells require high currents for programming and have slower writing/reading speed. This may result in high power consumption and poor speed performance for many memory applications.
From the foregoing discussion, it is desirable to provide low power memory cells with improved writing/reading performance in memory applications such as portable electronic devices and high-speed nonvolatile memory devices.